


Hadestown

by Absurdity_101



Category: ATEEZ (Band), LOONA (Korea Band), TWICE (Band)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Anger, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Brutal Murder, Bugs & Insects, Crimes & Criminals, Dark ATEEZ Ensemble, Dead People, Depression, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gen, Gore, Grief/Mourning, Kidnapping, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Multi, Murder Mystery, Obsession, Past Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Psychic Violence, Psychological Horror, Psychological Torture, Serial Killers, Stalking, Suicidal Thoughts, Top Choi San
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:34:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27854354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Absurdity_101/pseuds/Absurdity_101
Summary: In Damyang the only remnant of tenderness lies in the coniferous forest. Everything is dried,rotten by monotony and stammed by the raw green shades, hidden in the crying air of a mute town. Jung Wooyoung, a highschool student, butchers the forest in order to condensate his botanical curiosity. He ventures in the heart of the woody seaweed and trickle from a mushroom in another. That until, suddenly, on the hard tree barks appear sinister paintings stained with blood. The vibration of his own meat makes him shake in mistery, and the misterios man so called "bloody brush" starts to develop a shocking interest in his single admirer of his works. The interest grows and soon becames obsession
Relationships: Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Ha Sooyoung | Yves/Kim Jiwoo | Chuu, Jung Wooyoung/Original Female Character(s), Jung Wooyoung/Reader
Kudos: 2





	Hadestown

**Author's Note:**

> This is a very graphic story, so, if you are a sensitive reader I'd recomand you not to read. It deals with grief, and mostly the feeling of being an outcast, the anger growing inside of someone's mind till it explodes leaving behind only smoke and regrets. We have a painter, not an ordinary one, a highschool student having to take care of his little sister dealing with loss in a very strange way, and having to figure it out with his abusive girlfriend. English is not my first language so you might find some mistakes, I'm profoundly apologizing for this! You can find this story also on my wattpad account @AphroditeYoon. Hope you will like it!

The woods were always there, standing still, almost not breathing. They were holding all their oxygen, extending, expanding and then bursting in little forms of life. There were the trees, always there, always alive. Massive, dare I say. Sometimes they would look back at me, and their leaves had faces, green, yellow or orange, but rarely brown. They used to guide me, and I used to follow them recklessly. Oh, and how could I forgot, the birds! If I had a dollar for all the times they made my soul scream in different tonalities, right when I was sleeping on the grass with a novel on my knees,or inspecting a dead mushroom, I'll be a billionaire. 

I find birds useless, never understood the hype around them. Small, loud and carefree, just like babies. And maybe I grew up hating them, like a diseases, a hereditary one. Taking care of my sister, especially when she was a baby made my despise miniature living things. The same goes for birds. But in these woods it was almost like birds were meaningless, there to sing, but unheard. Everything was on mute, and everyone was so loud compared to the lifeless grass, there to grow, but always steady. Even the branches kept their mouth shut when I was stepping on them. Maybe they were getting used to the pain. Or maybe it was pain beyond pleasure. Regardless, the woods were there, empty, quiet and alone.

It was a herbarium dominated by half-asleep vegetation. It was creeping up on your neck, choking you until very breath of air smelled like chamomile and honey. Just like the times when you were a kid. Running all over places, falling painfully on the grass and getting your knees painted in a raw green-ish colour. You had stones in your mouth, and neatly you traced them around with your unkind tongue, but stopped suddenly when you felt them rummaging into your cavities. The whole forest was exactly like this. Once you've stepped in, you had that wierd taste of botanical curse all around your mouth, dripping and falling like raindrops. And yet everything was so dead, that likely you forget the taste once you pass the first trees. It's just the after taste of unknown and fear provoking you to remember how horrifying the forest truly is.

"There's no excuse for Chuu this time. We gave her a pass due to her sensitive condition, but now, time has passed and with it so does grief. She replaced grief with an unbearable behavior, and our institute can't, and will certainly not accept it!" 

I left a breath of air out, like a cloud of dissapointment. And it wasn't even something I could have said that would restore my faith, no, not in Chuu, but in all that has happened. 

"And yet it doesn't. I said while pressing my lips together in an upset smile. Time passes, but grief remains. It sinks deep into your bones, consumes every cell and then still remains, like a maggot that keeps growing and growing. Chuu felt grief way different than I did and in no circumstances I blame her. I'll have a talk with her, explaining that what she's done was absolutely awful, but please headmaster, give her another chance!" 

He looked at me shocked, almost like he didn't expected me to talk, but only to keep my head down and nod. Chuu needed school, and it was only her first year. Izumi needed school more than she needed me now. And yet this man with a funny figure, standing tall with a cup of tea flaming in hidden particles of bourbon, keep trying to expell a poor kid who only had a violent breakdown because her mom died, well our mom, but mostly her's.

"If I give her a second chance will you promise me she'll keep it down? I understand the pain (no he didn't, he certainly had no idea), but this is still a highschool. Chuu is a bright woman, creative and intelligent, it will be a great loss to our school, but she needs to learn how to behave in stressful situations. Understood, mr Jung?" He asks while taking a sit in his chair, an awfully loud chair.

I nodded. I just nodded like I actually gave a shit about what he just told me. He was so full of himself, blaming a child for reacting wrong when she was dealing with loss, that's just wrong! Pressing the knob under my palm I felt it's coldness, sort of comforting. The smell of his office wasn't that bad. A mixture of parfume, but not one, more than three certainly. It was mosk, a parisian field of flowers, and a... cupcake cologne? Anyways, it danced elegantly into a tango of parfume, tee bags and dusted paperwork. Outside it finally hit me. The smell was unbearable. High schoolers, what's worst than this? 

"So, how was it? Are you gonna hire a hot guvernant to take care of your little sister?" Asked Olivia, curiosity peeking through.

"Oh yeah! One that has three pairs of boobs. Olivia, you can be so annoying sometimes! Rather than hug me or kiss me like a normal girlfriend would you try to find out if you can hook up with what...milfs?"

"Well firstly you said it, like a normal girlfriend, I'm not normal sweetie." She said giving me a kiss on the cheek.  
  
Olivia squeezed my shoulders giving a short peck on the neck. When I am near her I walk so freely on the hallways, like the pavament is made of ice and I just slip on it, only to fall in the middle of a tulip and be hugged by an enchanting smell. And Olivia was never like a true girlfriend. Yes we kiss, we hook up and we have fun, but I never looked at him in the middle on the night and think to myself: " I can't live without you". Or at least that's how I see love. But how would I know. I only know Olivia and the type of "love" I feel for her it's strange. Like I am kissing a stranger, only to open my eyes and realise that she was never actually a stranger.

"What are you doing after school?" 

I turned my head to see his face. I expected a tint of red in his cheeks, or a bitten lower lip, but instead I got a large yawn. 

"Just usual. Maybe I'll watch a movie, or read something." I said, stopping finally in front of my locker and smiling to him. 

"That's the usual? Damn you are boring! I'm going to a party." 

Her voiced cracked while saying party, as if it would hit a middle ground. As if it was stuck to say something else. And imidiatly I understood. She didn't wanted me there. She wanted me home, actually watching a movie or reading. Olivia was like this, and has always been like this. Looking for a friend group or looking for freedom on her own. And to a point we agreed it's fun, to just go around have sex with who we wanted and then in the middle of the night meet and cry on each other shoulders about how miserable we are. But that stopped when he told me she fancied me. 

"Wooyoung, you see, it's just me and the girls. I promise there won't any... you know." 

"Fine. I accepted pushing slowly my books inside of the locker. The picture of me and Chuu shining in small pixels, like broken glass, or a broken snow globe. You can go, I don't need an explanation. But I need you to do something. Take Chuu with you. No need to watch over her, I'll send her friend, Sooyoung there. She needs this, she needs a distraction. You just have to bring them home at 12 and then you can continue you night. Alrighty?" 

Olivia hesitated. She scratched his nose, and then looked around only to realise it was alone and I needed an answer. I wasn't afraid for Chuu, cause Chuu was in a point of her life where she had no idea what exactly she wants. I just wish her to be ordinary. I don't particularly care if she drinks until the rooms spins, cause that's part of teenage years, or if she smokes till her lungs are like sponges, I just hope to see her doing all this stuff instead of digging holes in out garden and burying dead birds, that she also had killed, six feet under. 

"Are you sure that's what she needs?" 

"She doesn't need it, but that doesn't mean it won't distract her. She loves to observe others, and maybe she'll find a corner where she could chill and imagine how perfectly splendid it will be to dig a hole and bury someone's body in it. Maybe even hold a funeral. "

"Ok, now you're making me really not want to accept this. "

"Just do this one thing for me. I implored with a child-like voice. It's pointless to pretend that you're capable of doing other offers." 

On Olivia's face a shadow of sorrow started dripping. It was covering slowly her vision, and her fragile jawline, those eyes, perfectly straight cutting through every little detail of dispair and lies and finally kissing her lips. A dreadful kiss that was. She placed her arm on my shoulder, this time not squeezing it like a raipe grapefruit, letting the juice to infiltrate under her fingers, sticking to his blood and ferment there until everything exploded into a bath of sweet juicy blood. She squeezed it like she wanted me to gasp for air, to let inches of my soul dissaper into a painful moan. But I only stood there, like I did earlier into the headmaster's office, cold stone, facing him and almost wishing a bone of my body would snap, making her at least shiver. 

"Fine. She said. I'll take her with me but I'm not sure I'll be able to keep an eye on her for the whole night". Shee warned me, her arm floating back into her black unifom vest.

"No need, she'll keep an eye on you." 

Olivia left. Her body morphed rapidly into and aquiline silhouette, like the shadows of your dad's shoulders you trace with your fingers when you are little. It's like a puzzle of connecting dots, and the shoulders are pure mountains. They are either tense, vibrating in veins and harsh skin, or they are either down, friendly looking filled with passion and sincerity. Although I knew she wasn't happy, but I didn't care. I've lost too much time caring about who's happy and who's not, only to realise I never spent the right time to care about myself.

And so did the woods. They were carefree and also caring. I knew that the best, I knew a part of those clogged shadows on trees cared, otherwise they would've swallowed me whole. With their arms traced by veins of wood, the forest had the ability to open my mouth and extract every word until I only bled harsh roots and leafs. None of that happened yet. The woods embraced me, however I don't want to put my whole trust in their shadows so that I don't get stuck between them and light . There's a place I hate, those spots where the light meets the darkness and the grass suddenly looks like it's burning their tops in a pit of sun fire, and their down parts are protected by darkness. I hate that spot, cause everything feels like a dream. It's blurry and indecisive. It can never be truly dark or light. There's no in between.

Chuu sat on her bed, combing a dolls hair. She was almost an adult, and yet dolls remain a passion. She adores to touch their smooth skin and walk her fingers on their faces. Sometimes she holds them tight, until their heads pop or simply her fingers start hurting. Today she just passed the theet of the comb through a silky red hair. The porcelain cried under a bright yellow light, it was so bright that you could see little cracks on her cheek, like the petal of a poppy, grazed by the sharp wings of a rushed butterfly.

"What was her name?" I asked only because I wanted to break the ice. It was starting to get too akward.

"Sakura.Whispered Chuu. Her name is Sakura."

But it wasn't. It had always been Akira, but since our parents passed away Chuu started to recollect their names, manufacturing them into totally different ones. Now she was Sakura. I could see the doll wasn't happy about it, she misses the old self. But just like her scratched cheek, some things are meant to be broke, even if we are referring to a name.

"Are you ready for the party? It's gonna be fun. Olivia will take you there and you'll spend the night with Sooyoung. You've missed her, right?"

I took a place near her, actually right in front of her. She looks innocent, and yet alarmed. I poke the lipstick out, and a nice red colour started whipping for the touch of some sweet lips, falling in it's desire. So I pressed it lightly on her lips, while Chuu kept on brushing the doll's hair. The color had spread lightly, only staining her lips. She looked funny, not at all like a little lady. 

"Olivia is here." I announce with a fear in my voice, making me more and more unsure of my decision. 

"Can I bring her with me? She asked, holding the doll close to her chest. She likes music and people... and I like her" 

Chuu just jumped out of the bed without even waiting for a clear answer. It's not like she was overwhelmed with an intensity of emotions she wasn't able to bottle up, is was more like an overflow of anxiety but also the desire to get out. Chuu wasn't clueless, and she knew her mental state was decreasing day by day, like a carousel falling in ether. Watching her stumble across the stairs, her eyes sparkling in a way only I knew. They way sea lovers drown in sirens songs, or the way leafs kiss the soil with a harsh peck on it's surface, biting it's fertility off.

I stared from my window at Sooyoung and Chuu, and how Olivia threw an annoying look around the yard. I don't blame her, the flowers had slowly became a pile on dried petals, and the bushes were brided in different directions, almost climbing the walls of the house. Olivia hated nature, and so did the nature. The car vanished away in the night, and I had to close my eyes for a minute to recall if this was part of a dream or just a pice of a forgettable night. It was forgettable, I couldn't remember their faces anymore. They were like Chuu's dolls, thrown all around the room, faceless, undressed of prejudice and secrets. They were still, and yet moved much more than we do. 

CHOI SAN POV 

My backpack was full of things and when I stepped on -actually on whatever- it made an awfully loud sound. Until I laid my back in that bus, I was cold and I knew this coldness wasn't because of the weather, but because of the woods. I always left with an iceberg floating in my ocean of blood. It was a flood, outside and inside. The rain was biting angry and it felt like it was going to break the windows. Not that I cared, I would've loved to put my hand open and feel how the sweet rain is melting down forming traces of water from my stained finger tips. It was almost poetic. Dark, cold, in a bus, raining, some would say it's a movie scene and suddenly a beautiful girl with cherry wine cheeks would appear sitting next to me and listening to some Nirvana, but it wasn't a movie, none of it is a movie. This scene is beautiful, but before it the chaos was breathing right on my neck, a divine breath of death. That might explain why my hands are stained, and my fists hurt like hell.

I could easily observe the other passengers from here, but I choose not to. It's vulgar and scary to stare at others...only to stare. Why stare when you can touch? I just close my eyes and imagine how soft that man's jacket feels. How it slips between my hands and feel like stars after star shopping. It's much more pleasant to imagine the feelings of things, such as the drivers curly hair, or grip the thight seat material. It's much more satisfying. Life is so fleeting. And I realised it only know, while I'm expunging the paint of my fingers. My hands rub together and they get sore as soon as my chuckles start giggling into a manic laugh. I can't get it off, it's stuck onto my fingertips like a parfume smell, only that it doesn't smell, it stinks, but I can't admit to myself of what it smells like, I just can't...

"Excuse me, can I sit?"

I didn't even turned my head. I started at her deformed reflexion in the bus window and close my eyes. Dragging the backpack on the bus seat I just nodded. And she got the idea, cause she left. She wasn't a bimbo or something, although her short skirt did made me lower my eyes. With my mind I touched her soft legs and they twitched, just like a snowflake, it shakes and then it melts. The sound my backpack left behind blended with the engine, thank God! They are never gonna touch this bag. Not even in their minds.

WOOYOUNG POV 

The book was quite entertaining. Of course it was a cliche old romance story, but it's fun to dream that in some sort of fucked up universe people actually were interested in this stuff. I imagine a little girl with braided dark hair sitting thight under her rat-bitten blanket reading a story about a rich mister "X" falling in love with a teenage poor "milady". And she devours the book while in the same room, two feet away a woman wheeps when her husband scratches his injuries left behind from the plague. The kid can't hear them. For the first time she only heard the leafs trembling and the grass screaming because the sun is carbonizing it's body. I sometimes feel like that too. 

One hour has passed and the cold night layered her sadness all around I've been starting to ask myself how is Chuu holding up. That until the phone starting to ring. It's sound creeped onto the walls and ceiling only to drip unhurried into my head and ice my flowing blood. On the bright white screen Olivia's name appeared. I responded with a relief I didn't know could hide in my voice. Almost as if I was talking with a code family member.

"Hello?" I started, my voice detaching into little cracks of worry and pleasure.

"What the fuck Wooyoung? Your sister just threw the biggest tantrum in the middle of the party and then left the scene like some sort of vandalism act. She fucking got out through the forest."

Her scream was decreasing it's tonality word by word. But my hands decreased their movement. They stopped functioning. My body had no control over them what so ever, transforming into some accessories i suddenly attach to a machine. He continued to swear and stutter and all I i could hear was the echo of music coming out of the party washing the shore like the waves and some leafs trempled on.

"It's fine. I assure him. I know the forest better than I know myself, so if by any chance she's still in there I'll find her."

I closed the call, put on a yellow rain jacket and got out of the house. The wind was ripping pieces of my cheeks and his warnings were clear: "Stay away!". My body was moving me to a pace a didn't know I had. I was fast and almost developing a system through my steps. I imagined soldiers walking like this on their way to the battle ground. And in a way that's exactly how it was. I could've walked through a tunnel of my sister's guts and remainings thinking to myself that they are only a rabbits organs. The forest wasn't as big as she proclaims to be. It was a large fence on trees and plant traps. In the dark it's measurements grew bigger and bigger swollowing every creature daring to breath near it's nest of dreid flowers and mushrooms.

I couldn't care less. I knew the forest had a sympathy for me. And so I climbed the hills and valleys, ran through dried branches praying they are not bones cracking under my boots and breath the air shooting icy winds of pine and spruce. It smelled like my grandmother's cough syrup. A cloack of fog tied around my eyes as I started to get far and far away from the forest's safe zone. I knew exactly where the party kept it's fun boiling, not to far from my house. And due to the neon lights flaying in orb like shapes I was certain Chuu passed through here. I stared at the shape of the ground and it looked like it was touched by human foot recently. The soil gather itself like crumbs of chocolate biscuits. O started running shouting Chuu's name.

"Chuu where are you? Answer Chuu is me Wooyoung!"

But all I got was the dark howl of an owl. My body was hitting the vines and I could some blood dropping from my palms. It was dark and yet my mind created a map of light that I could follow. The trunks of the trees were rising higher and higher and like toothbrushes they used spikes as their defense. Some of them were stubborn as hell, entering thorough my skin and sucking the blood out just like a mite. And I kept running and running until there was none of the forest I once knew. I was either too tired or the forest put on a new dress and I was just stumbling through the glossy silk. The trees had different faces and the owl's song suddenly became guttural crying of a violin. I had to stop. I was running out of air and the sweat corrupted my entire body. The furnaces housed by my toracic box shook my chest as soon as I collapsed on the cold and hard ground. 

My breath was tailored in the shape of a cigarette's smoke. Up, up, up and never down. I turned me head to the right as I felt my migraine started to hit deeply. And then I saw it.Chuu's doll was resting horizontally, looking at the sky covered by the tree claws. I guess she was wondering why there was no stars. Starts never shine here. They are too afraid the dark will eat them up. Leaning on my elbows I dragged the doll near and I could feel it, some sort of liquid dripping over her poor little body. As soon as I raised it above my head I saw it. Her whole face and body was covered in blood (or at least that's what I imagined that was). It wasn't fear i had felt, but curiosity. So I jumped back up on my feet. Opening my phone's lantern and looking all around.

"Chuu?" 

In front of me, standing still was a painting nailed into a pines bark. The canvas shined as a sign that the paint was still wet. And just like the doll the painting was also red. It had a bird on it flying. I assume it was a hawk. It's wings were tied and from his mouth the stem of a rose it appeared. The red inflorescence of the rose was missing, instead, a human had started right into my soul. And under the "masterpiece" it said: 

"To whoever is now looking at this... your dear bloody painter. May God take care of you, or else I will!" 

Little did the painter know that in this place there was no God. Even God was afraid of the forest morbidity.


End file.
